Writing
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[edit] Writing
[edit] Descriptions, Definitions, Synonyms, Organizer Terms, Types of
[edit] Basic Definition
The act of one who writes. Written form: Put it in writing. Handwriting; penmanship. Something written, especially: Meaningful letters or characters that constitute readable matter. A written work, especially a literary composition. The occupation or style of a writer. Writings (used with a sing. or pl. verb) Bible. The third of the three divisions of the Hebrew Scriptures, composed of Psalms, Proverbs, Job, Song of Solomon, Ruth, Lamentations, Ecclesiastes, Esther, Daniel, Ezra, Nehemiah, and Chronicles. See table at Bible.
[edit] Writing Systems
There are four basic writing systems: logographic, syllabic, alphabetic, and featural.
[edit] Logographies
A logogram is a written character which represents a word or morpheme. Although the vast array of logograms needed to sufficiently account for a whole language is vast, and can often take years to master, once mastered, this type of system can become very efficient to read. The Chinese language is heavily dependent on logographic characters.
[edit] Syllabaries
A syllabary is a set of written symbols that represent syllables, thus, like logographies, a syllabary system of writing can take longer to master than other systems. In fact, many logographies have syllabary components to them. Also like logographies, then, once mastered, syllabaries can be incredibly efficient. The Japanese language is well suited for sullabaries.
[edit] Alphabets
What you are reading right now: "a small set of symbols, each of which roughly represents or historically represented a phoneme of the language" (Writing, 2005). In a perfectly alphabaic system, one could predict the spelling of all words based solely on how they sound. However, because many languages borrow words from other languages that may or may not be alphabaic, this is rarely the case.
[edit] Featural scripts
As Wikipedia explains it, "A featural script notates the building blocks of the phonemes that make up a language" (Writing, 2005). The written form of American sign language is a perfect example of featural scripts as the shapes of the hands, and corresponding gestures are used to construct the language.
[edit] Application in the Classroom
[edit] General Overview
Without the skill of being able to write, it is impossible to succeed in the academic world. Writing is what allows people to move forward in life- through their professional careers and personal lives. Teaching writing is a task that all educators stuggle with because it is nearly impossible to reach all students on this topic at the same time. Writing may come to a person in the seventh grade, but may take the next person 27 years. The skill of writing can be taught year after year in school- and it is. But to learn the skill of writing is a gift.
[edit] Strategies
How do we impart that gift? A number of writing strategies have proven to be quite effective in the classroom, both for the purpose of providing students with opportunities to learn, and in providing quality products for assessment. Three such strategies are listed below.
[edit] Journals
Writing is thinking, and is therefore often the most effective way to engage students in content. Journal writing (or open form free-writing about a given topic) is a way to get students to explore their own understandings of the subject matter and crystalize their understanding. It can also be an invaluable resource for the self-assessment of teachers. In any subject matter if students can explain their understanding of a given topic in words, chances are it was taught well, and learned by the students. More importantly, though, journal writing can provide the teacher with a key to what was not learned, and needs to be retaught.
[edit] Essay Writing
Most people have been asked to write an essay on one thing or another at some point in their lives. Like all tasks, there is a process to writing, most were introduced to the following:
1. Prewriting (Natural process, or free-form writing)
2. Writing (Focused practice on a given task)
3. Revising (Skill development in specified areas, ie. transition, grammar, etc.)
The above procedures have been proven to be quite effective, but current research has demonstrated that the above strategies are most effective when students:
1. Practice those parts in context of the whole writing process (ie. don't teach grammar in isolation).
2. Understand how the various parts of the process help to impact other parts.
[edit] Writers Workshops
These are systematic, well organized classroom activities that allow students to freely express themselves in written form in a climate that is safe for all writers. It has been proven to be effective even in early elementary grades.
[edit] Writing Portfolios
Perhaps nothing can more honestly, and reliably demonstrate the quality of student growth than a writing portfolio. These are compilations of student work that can allow both the student and teacher to see the improvements (or lack thereof) over time.
[edit] Writing Programs
G. Hillocks examined studies on writing (1984, 1986) in an effort to analyze how and what to teach in a writing program. Three general methods of instruction were identified in the area of how to teach. In the natural process mode students decide what they want to write about and do so at their own pace. They ask for help from the teacher or other students when they feel it is needed. In the presentational mode the teacher lectures on correct writing methods, decides what students will write about and corrects students' writing. In the environmental mode both the student and the teacher work together on the goals, content and process of writing. Small groups of students are assisted by the teacher to improve their writing through various methods such as predicting and supporting arguments with data. Of the three, the environmental mode was three to four times more effective than the other two.
Hillocks researched what to teach as well. Six areas were identified. In one program, grammar is emphasized and teachers mark all student errors in writing. Another program emphasizes studying models of good writing. The third, free writing, simply lets students totally choose what and how they write. Sentence combining helps students combine simple sentences to create more complex and better sentences. In the scales program, students use a checklist to review and revise their writing and the writing of others. Finally, with the inquiry program, students discuss their writing and discover ways to improve it. The grammar approach produced the worst results and at times actually seemed to decrease the quality of writing. The three that work most closely with specific composition writing skills produced the best improvement in student writing: sentence combining, scales and inquiry.
Many popular writing programs ignore this research. According to Mayer (2003) CSIW or Cognitive Strategy Instruction in Writing is a program that follows the above research findings. It includes instruction for all three stages of the writing process (plan, translate and review). It helps students plan, organize, write, edit and revise their work. Students learn "internal talk" that guides their writing. Structure is given as they go through the writing process and it is done in the context of a writing community that takes advantage of collaboration. This structure consists of a variety of sheets that help students think through and work through the writing process. Another program that follows Hillocks advice on research findings is SRSD, self-regulated strategy development. Students answer questions before writing a story. The teacher helps students as they go through the writing process. The teacher also models the writing process. Students practice these skills by themselves and with classmates. While developed for elementary students with learning disabilities, it can be useful for a much wider audience.
[edit] Outside the classroom
Writing well can also be an invaluable source of power. The ability to write well can quickly pay economic dividends in the form of well composed resumes, letters of recommendation, memos, reports, etc. Additionally, in most settings the old adage still holds true: "A problem well defined is half solved." The ability to efficiently, and clearly analyze and express a probelm is something for which many employers express a great need.
More personally, writing also provides a way to discover the self. To teach writing in the classroom is to teach students to develop a social and personal consciousness that stays with them throughout life. One who takes the effort to express his thoughts in writing crystalizes his thinking, and engages his world. To do this well, then, equates with a more thorough awareness of one's self and one's place in the world.
[edit] Cross Curricular Applications
Writing is involved in all subject areas from the sciences to the arts. Therefore, it is important for students to understand the need to consider their audience when writing correlates to another subject. For example, mathematics may involve writing when a student must thoroughly explain the thinking process they went through when solving a problem. When faced with this task, students can follow some basic steps. First, the student can rewrite the information he knows just by reading the mathematics problem. Second, the student can turn the mathematical question into a statement by telling what the problem is asking. Third, the student solves the problem, keeping track of each process he goes through and any units necessary for the problem. Fourth, the student writes the process taken in solving the problem. (In the case of elementary students, the words addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division might appear in these sentences followed by "to equal.") Whenever a mathematical process is written in a sentence, the word "because" is used to further explain why the decision was made to go through that process. This section of mathematical writing continues until the answer is finally discussed. The fifth and final step is to rewrite the answer in a statement, ensuring that the original math question was answered.
An example of this process as it might be seen in a lower elementary classroom is as follows:
[edit] Math Problem:
Jane had seven books. John gave her two books for her birthday. How many books does Jane have now?
[edit] Writing Process:
Step One - I know Jane had seven books and John gave her two more books.
Step Two - I need to find out how many books Jane has now.
Step Three - 7 + 2 = 9 books
Step Four - I added seven plus two to equal nine because I wanted to find out how many books there were in all.
Step Five - Therefore, Jane now has nine books.
[edit] Evidence of Effectiveness
Is the teaching of writing an effective way to educate our children? After all, NCLB only requieres an assessment of reading and math. A 1993 study asked a group of education researchers, "What is the single most important thing that we as a profession know now that we didn't know 30 years ago about the teaching and learning of writing in the elementary school?" The conclusions are listed below:
Writing in the early years is a natural "gateway to literacy."
All children can be writers.
Understanding writing and writers means understanding complex and interrelated influences--cognitive, social, cultural, psychological, linguistic, and technological.
We write so that both we and others can know what we think.
Although, as stated in "Critics and Their Rationale" below, writing can be seen as a bottle neck when compared to other forms of communication, for young children, this is not necessarily the case. Peter Elbow of the University of Massachusetts has found that young children "can write anything they can say, whereas they can read only a fraction of the words they can say." Therefore, "writing is easier, quicker, and, in a sense, more 'natural' than reading--certainly more naturally learned" ("Writing Instruction, 2000).
Writing as a Language Domain Writing is an integral part of the process of developing language skills. New standards for bilingual education, the WIDA standards, recognize that reading, writing, speaking and listening are all crucial elements in promoting literacy in children. Attention to the critical component of writing will serve the second language learner, as well as mainstream students, well.
[edit] Critics and Their Rationale
"Writing is a cognitive bottle neck illustrated by the speed of processing, e.g., words per minute (wpm). Reading - 300 wpm or more are possibleSpeaking - 120 wpm with talking head on the evening news, 80 wpm simplified English used by Voice of America, sometimes. Shorthand - similar to speaking Good junkyard typist - 65 wpm Court stenographer - 300 wpm Student handwritten prose - 20 wpm! A virtual bottleneck compared to the other input/output aspects of language processing.
Stages in the writing process Stage 1 - Planning Setting goals * Communicate meaning, a premium goal * Tell all you know about some topic - dump core as in old "computerease" * To avoid making errors, seems to be the goal of many novice writers Generating ideas * Differences between expert and novice writers in declarative knowledge. * Difference in management of demands on working memory. * Some people do not know how to cue themselves to continue finding ideas and writing. Organizing ideas * Readers expect organization at both local (sentence and paragraph levels) and global (documents and sections of documents) levels of discourse * Reduces processing burden on the reader - "let the reader make sense of it!" * Cohesion - when ideas from smoothly from one to another within sentences, as well as across sentences boundaries, then cohesion is said to be high. Pronouns, words which point, etc. * Coherence - the degree to which an entire piece of writing fits together in an organized way. Depends on choices made about the purpose of the piece, the writing/thinking conventions within a content area and how well the pieces fit together. * Students learn to write like the text they read. "Water passage" as an example. * Skilled writers are more likely than less skilled writers to focus on the goal of communicating meaning. Less skilled writers focus on avoiding mechanical errors or on retrieving knowledge of a given topic. * Mature writers generate more ideas and have greater mastery over organizational devices than do less skilled writers.
Stage 2 - Translating * Transforming the ideas in one's head into strings of words on a piece of paper or a computer screen. * Stretches working memory to limit * Different from speaking because of the possibility of repetitions, inflection in speech, feedback from listener, etc. * Writing blind caused the composition of the less skilled writers to lose cohesion, but it had little effect on the cohesiveness of skilled writers. * Writer's block - unload the top layer, and let spreading activation working for the writer. Less skilled writers are thinking about spelling, grammar and punctuation, whereas skilled writers are thinking about cohesion and communication. These skills are not at the automatic level for the naive writer * Techniques for translating using word processors and note cards and whatever.
Stage 3 - Reviewing Evaluating * Requires metacomprehension and reading skills-- editing is difficult and not many people can do it well. * Takes too much time * Too much ego involvement on the author's part. * Too much criticism/marking associated with it. * Problem of finding appropriate audience to do the evaluating. Revising * Necessary most of the time * Resisted by many writers * Computer makes it very much easier." Tom Anderson
"Teaching of writing focuses too much on product, on the written paper that the student submits, and not enough on the process, on how to write" (Steinberg, 1980)
- Note: The above quote speaks to an outdated style of instruction -product based instruction- that was prevalent throughout the 1960s, 70's and into the 80's. The 90's brought more process based instructional strategies to the forefront of best practice.
[edit] Life Experiences, Testimonies, Stories
I believe writing is one of the most difficult and important skills we teach our students. One of the things we have to understand as educators is that writing must be throughout the curriculum. I teach high school history and I try to have my students write at least once a week. One of the things we do is write diaries based on different aspects of American History. One of the students favorite projects is the Revolutionary War diaries. Another good project we do is to make a Civil War Newspaper. I have found that much like reading the more students write the better they get at it. Craig Johnson
The joy of writing. / The power of preserving. / Revenge of a mortal hand. -Wislawa Szymborska
Writing is an alternative to self destruction. -Tracy Kidder
"When I face the desolate impossibility of writing 500 pages, a sick sense of failure falls on me, and I know I can never do it. Then gradually, I write one page and then another. One day's work is all I can permit myself to contemplate." ~~John Steinbeck
Writing is one of the most difficult skills to teach my hearing impaired students. We always begin with experience stories and that seems a natural way to teach the skill with the little kids because you can always 'create' an experience to write about. It's much more challenging when my eighth grade student comes in with a writing assignment. Rhonda Hall
I have been a 7th grade language arts teacher for 4 years. Our district is currently using a model for writing called 6-Traits. It is not really different from writing programs that have been used in the past, except that we are teaching it throughout the whole district, so the vocabulary is the same. When students enter my classroom, I can say words such as "voice" and "sentence fluency" and the students know what I am talking about. It has definitely made the teaching of writing a little easier.-Amy Higgins
I have been a composition teacher for over ten years. I truly believe writing to be a very unique animal in the venue of schooling. It is a challenge for virtually every student; it is ubiquitous with respect to disciplines; it is the most challenging thing to accurately evaluate; and it is one of the most important skills for any student to possess. Writing seems to get a lot of attention and energy and rightly so; however, it seems to me that the rise of rubrics and methodology with respect to evaluating writing has simply complicated the matter. I have depended on rubrics as an educational tool and as a way to eliminate subjectivity from the evaluation of writing, but no rubric has yet been invented that can actually do those things with more than a marginal degree of success. I would challenge others to respond to that notion and discuss their thoughts on writing evaluation and education.
I once went to a workshop on writing, and the use of rubrics for assessment, and the moderator pointed out that having a rubric is only half of the assessment tool. The other half is having good anchor pieces so that it is clear what is meant by a '4 in Conventions.' Once everyone can agree on the characteristics of a given score, the subjectivity is remonved from the assessment, Warner Ferratier
I agree with the need to develop solid "anchor pieces" as you grade. Without doing so, teachers run the risk of giving grades without knowing exacly why they are giving them. I would also suggest one other method of adding objectivity to the grading process: grading in pairs. I first started doing this when I was paired with another teacher to teach AP Lit & Comp. We graded the Open Response essays that we gave for a midterm exam together, discussing them as we went along. Here was our process:
1. Discuss the prompt, anticipate what we are looking for in a quality response, and identify possible problem areas.
2. Switch essays so that I graded her students' essays, and she graded my students' essays. This way weren't likely to have preconceived notions of a student as a good or bad writer.
3. Create piles of student responses based on quality, and discuss any papers that seemed to be on the line between two piles.
4. Half way through the grading period we stopped, and read one work from each of the others' pile to check if we agree with the evaluation. This served to "recalibrate" our thinking.
This process took longer, but not nearly as long as you would think (3-4 hours for about 56 students). Both of us felt very confident in the grades we gave back, and were much better prepared to explain our grading rationale to the class as a result. --Greg Johnson
This year I have started teaching with the Lucy Caulkins Writing Workshop and I have enjoyed seeing how much energy and excitement students get out of their writing. I am still learning how to include conventions of writing in this program, but overall I have seen student writing become much richer. E. Kilroy
I teach a 7th and 8th grade writing class that basically was developed to improve standardized test scores. The curriculum requires me to teach the steps to writing a good essay and to writing an extended response. It's a difficult subject for me to teach and for my students to learn. It's especially rough when so many of my students that have IEP's have difficulites in written expression. I think the main reason it's difficult for me to teach writing is because it's so prescribed and I feel I'm just teaching the test. I would much more prefer the class if it were a creative writing course...and I think my students would enjoy it more as well. Something that wasn't mentioned above was the link between reading and writing. Many students today don't enjoy reading for pleasure and I wonder how that affects their writing ability. -J. Adams
[edit] References and other links of interest
Farrell-Childers, Pamela; Ruggles Gere, Anne; Young, Art. (1994). Programs and Practices: Writing Across the Secondary School Curriculum. Heinemann, Portsmouth, NH.
Hillocks, G. (1984) What works in teaching composition: A meta-analysis of experimental treatment studies. American Journal of Education, 93, 133-170.
Hillocks, G. (1986) Research on written composition. Urbana, Illinois: National Council of Teachers of English.
Mayer, R. E., (2003). Learning and Instruction. Merrill Prentice Hall, Upper Saddle River, N.J.
Zemelman, Steven, Daniels, Harvey, & Hyde, Arthur. (1998). Best Practice: New Standards for Teaching and Learning in America's Schools. Heinemann, Portsmouth, NH.
Current Practices in the Classroom
Changing Views About Writing Instruction
The Importance of Writing Well -from a Physicist
Personal Testimony: Marjorie Hay
As a high school teacher in the area of English and Language Arts, I would have to say that one of the biggest weaknesses facing our freshamn is poor writing skills. I often wonder what has brought about the decline in the writing level of these students. I theorize an ideaabout what has brought about this current trend. I don't believe that we as a society value writing as much as we used to. The telephone and the computer have all but caused letter-writing to become extinct. We no longer communicate through the (hand) written word like we did even 10 years ago. With little to no need to write to people, communication skills may not suffer, but our need for writing does. Our students, never having acquired the need to communicate with a friend, relative, or business correspondent, have lost the need to do so.
